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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I am often confronted with people who do not grasp the ironic nature of an utterance. I have heard the term "irony deafness" used to describe this problem, and while accurate it is certainly unwieldy. How would you say this in a single word using Greek or Latin roots, or does anyone know any other synomyms that are appropriate?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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tsuwm probably has it at the tip of his mouse, but some suggested Latin words to form a word (we really could use one) if necessary:
Irony
cavillatio -onis f. [raillery , jesting, irony]. Transf., [a quibbler].
dissimulatio -onis f. [a concealing , dissembling], esp. [of irony].
inlusio -onis f. [irony].
inversio -onis f. [irony; transposition; allegory].
ironia -ae f. [irony].
Deaf
obsurdesco -descere -dui [to become deaf; to turn a deaf ear].
surdaster -tra -trum [somewhat deaf].
surditas -atis f. [deafness].
surdus -a -um [deaf; unwilling to hear , insensible; not heard, still, silent]; of sounds, etc. [indistinct, faint].
tundo tundere tutudi tunsum and tusum [to thump , pound, strike repeatedly; to deafen, importune].
I would go for something like ironisurdity or inlusisurdity.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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we all understand (and use) irony so well... there must be a word for this!
...but I don't know of one.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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literal?-- i sometimes think people who don't understand irony are to literal-- the same people have trouble with idioms. you try to give them a head's up and they look at the ceiling!
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old hand
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old hand
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In reply to:
i sometimes think people who don't understand irony are too literal--
Same goes for sarcasm... I would submit that whatever that filter is called, the people of whom we speak have theirs set on dim.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I agree that people who often miss irony are often very direct, literal people.
One of my favorite movies, "Roxanne," has a great scene regarding irony deafness. Steve Martin is walking Daryl Hannah home in the small town where they both live, and it's a little chilly, so he asks if she would like to wear his coat. She replies, "No I think I'd rather just freeze to death" or something like that. He just looks at her blankly and then says, "You're being ironic! Oh, we haven't had irony here in YEARS!" like it was a consumer item. And of course he's being facetious himself. What a funny, witty movie.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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looking a little deeper, I discovered that the modern Latin word used in rhetoric for irony is enantiosis...
how about enantiobsurdity
(also from rhetoric, asteism is a genteel® irony, a polite and ingenious mockery -- just the sort of stuff that goes down around here :)
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old hand
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old hand
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During my stay in London, my best friend often called me square, when I failed to react to refined grades of irony. Of an other colleague, he said: he is so square as to be octagonal..
Later I had a very bright young lady technician who had the knack of feigning irony-deafness - the surest way to make your quips fall flat. How would you call that?
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old hand
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old hand
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On the pattern of anesthesia etc. I propose anironia
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Carpal Tunnel
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Based on Faldage's excellent research, I would choose "cavillasurdaster", if only because it would totally floor anyone hearing it. I shall use it constantly from now on, particularly with my boss!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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